City gar­dens open for ev­ery­one to en­joy

Gar­dens in the city will be opened to the pub­lic, some for the first time, in the CBC Gar­den Tour on Novem­ber 3.

El­iz­a­beth Shearer has or­gan­ised the Cen­tral Bap­tist Church fundraiser with funds go­ing to­ward debt re­pay­ment of a prop­erty at 200 Church St.

She’s busy or­gan­is­ing the event where over 15 gar­dens will be on the tour­ing map, and has hus­band Owen help­ing to get their ex­pan­sive gar­den show-ready.

“Open­ing the gar­den to the pub­lic will be re­ward­ing,” says El­iz­a­beth.

Their gar­den has a lot of sto­ries wo­ven into the plant­ings. The mag­no­lias are named for fam­ily mem­bers. The dal­ma­tian named Tasha, which they in­her­ited from the neigh­bour, would sit un­der the Awanui cherry watch­ing for El­iz­a­beth and Owen to re­turn home, and is now buried be­neath it. The es­pe­liered ap­ples of 35 va­ri­eties, the six dif­fer­ent ko¯ whai for the tu¯ ı¯, and the many ed­i­ble and scented plants have been planted in the 5200sq m of gar­den.